How to Clean Your Fridge

Most people think I am fastidious and organized, especially about things in my kitchen. In truth, it’s all a facade. That’s right, I’m outing myself: I’m a closet slob. (Literally. My closets are slobby). For years, when I lived at home with my too-forgiving parents, or in cinder-block dorm rooms and tiny, cramped rental apartments, I didn’t care enough to keep things tidy. Papers were strewn about my room, and you could usually find me by following the trail of discarded shoes on the floor. (My dad once left me a note that said, “Dear Lil, Please close us! Love, Your Drawers.”)

But love does funny things to a girl. Once my husband and I bought our place and started building our life together, I felt driven to overcome my innate disorganization. Every day is a battle between the angel and the devil on my shoulders–every fiber of my being wants to dump that jacket on the ground instead of carefully hanging it in the closet. Most of the time, the angel makes me reach for the hanger, because my desire to provide a lovely place for our little family to live wins out. (But sometimes I still drop it on the floor. Nobody’s perfect).

Nowhere is my lingering internal messypants more evident than in my fridge. I finally have an amply-sized, cold-all-over, stainless-steel, big-kid fridge, but I’m still working out how everything should fit in it. I have, though, figured out how to clean it. After the jump, find my 6 steps to a clean fridge.

How To Clean Your Fridge

1. Take out all the food, throwing away anything that is moldy, spoiled, or expired. Also throw out that mustard bottle with 1/8-inch layer of yellow at the bottom. Make a list of things to replace.

2. Take out all the removable parts of the fridge, like the shelves and the drawers. If your fridge has a drip tray, pull that out, too. Use a sponge and warm water mixed with a mild non-toxic dishwashing soap to scrub them clean. Be careful not to expose a cold glass shelf to very hot water–the temperature change might cause it to crack. Also, don’t use ammonia- or bleach-based cleaning products in your fridge–you don’t want that stuff in with the food you eat. When everything is clean, wipe dry with a clean towel.

3. Wash out the inside of the fridge and the door with the same mild soapy water solution. Wipe dry. If there is a residual foody smell, wipe down the whole thing with a solution of baking soda and warm water.

4. Replace the shelves and drawers, making sure one shelf is tall enough for your milk carton and other tall items. Every fridge is different, but here are a few rules of thumb for grocery placement.

a) Veggies go in the crisper drawer. Usually the temperature is calibrated to be ideal for veggies. I put mine in Ziplock bags to keep them fresher, and so I can see what’s in there.b) Don’t put meat, milk, or eggs in the door. The door is almost always significantly warmer than the rest of the fridge, so save that space for condiments, wine and juices.
c) Keep fresh meat and poultry wrapped in a plastic bag on a shelf where it will be kept cold and cannot drip on anything below it.d) Keep like with like. Cheese, yogurt, and other dairy products should be housed together. All fruits should be together. And lining up all the beer and canned sodas in tidy rows will give you that super-organized TV commercial look.

5. As you put things back in the fridge, make sure you wipe off each item with a damp rag to make sure there is nothing sticky going back into your gorgeous, sparkly-clean fridge. Put a box of baking soda in there to keep it smelling just as clean.

6. Think you’re finished? Sorry. Repeat with the freezer.

Photo: Copyright iStockphoto.com/gerenme

The last of a dying breed (or the first of a new breed), Lily Fink Harrington is the only 28-year-old housewife we know. She cooks, she cleans, she bakes, she sews, she makes things from scratch. Care to join her? Check out her blog, A Charmed Wife.